DotA

DotA developer IceFrog has announced via his blog that he will be leading a team at Valve and as a result be in a position resource-wise to do more for the DotA community. IceFrog has had the reigns of DotA since 2005 when Steven "Guinsoo" Feark left to work at Riot Games on the LoL (League of Legends: Clash of Fates) game which is in closed beta and will see a release around October 27th this year supposedly.

DotA is also seeing real competition on the horizon in the form of HoN (Heroes of Newerth) which is being developed by S2games and Demigod. With so many games threatening to fragment the community the future of this genre has been a topic of recent discussion as seen in a piece over on gameriot.

Questions over whether or not StarCraft II could be a possible future home for DotA were answered by IceFrog in a Q&A he did:

"I've been actively exploring several options for some time now. Starcraft 2 might not necessarily have what DotA needs to become a better game. Moving to any new engine presents various challenges that need to be considered."

Speaking about the move to Valve in his blog IceFrog added:

"My goal and top priority in the future is to solve the surrounding issues that affect the DotA experience in order to allow it to reach new heights. Addressing these issues will enable us to further enjoy aspects of DotA such as the gameplay, mechanics, and in-game feel that currently work well and ought to be maintained. As I've said many times in the past and especially after today's developments, I am very excited about DotA's future!"

He also addressed the upcoming 6.64 patch:

"With regards to the 6.64 patch, the focus will be primarily on more balance improvements. It is moving along very smoothly and I expect to have it ready soon. Once those refinements are done, I'll be working on some fun new content such as heroes or remakes for the 6.65 version. If there are specific things, big or small, you want me to consider for patches that follow, let me know."

Fans will no doubt be speculating on what he means by having the resources to improve things and whether or not this means some kind of Valve-created DotA varient to compete with the likes of HoN and LoL.